Tribunal finds surgeon is ‘fit to practice’

ANGUS HOWARTH

A HIGHLY experienced consultant surgeon whose patient died on the operating table has been found fit to continue practising.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determined all the key facts against Professor James Richardson to be not proven, concluding a lengthy hearing on Saturday.

The tribunal found Prof Richardson’s fitness to practise had not been impaired after his patient, 43-year-old Luigi Belcuore, suffered a cardiac arrest on the operating table caused by an air bubble entering the bloodstream.

Wendy Farrington-Chadd, chief executive of the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation NHS Trust in Oswestry, Shropshire said Mr Richardson was “highly-experienced” and “continues to work at the hospital”.